Slide 1-Introduction

Script DRO 1

Slide 1-Introduction

Hello, my name is Raychal Struck. Welcome to this informative presentation. Today I will be educating you on Differential Reinforcement of Other Behavior. Please use the following slides as a reference during this narration. I will be giving you additional information that you may find noteworthy. Thank you and enjoy!

Slide 2-Table of Contents

I will begin by discussing the new approach of PBIS, then I will continue on to the intervention known as DRO. I will provide evidence of support for this intervention. Then I will discuss settings in which DRO can be used, as well as introduce you to a case study to provide a clearer understanding of DRO.

Slide 3-Table of Contents (continued)

I will then discuss the steps involved in using DRO as an intervention. The Dos and Don’ts of DRO will be mentioned. Finally, I will apply the steps of DRO to the case study I have provided for you. You will find the reference list at the end of this presentation. This intervention is derived from these evidence based research studies.

At this time I would like to instruct you that the remaining slides will contain a lot of information. If you have missed any information, at the end of the narration, please click on the speaker icon within the slide, located near the slide number. To move to the next slide, click with your mouse.

Slide 4-Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports

Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports is a concept that originated with professionals and their work with individuals who exhibit behavior problems. They found that punishing problem behaviors is not an effective way to decrease the problem behaviors. All behavior serves a function, whether it is appropriate or not. The maladaptive behaviors that students exhibit are allowing them to accomplish something, such as getting out of a test they do not want to take, or gaining peer or teacher attention. PBIS is a way for schools to develop positive behaviors in schools by replacing the maladaptive behaviors of students with behaviors that are acceptable and still serve the same function. Primary Prevention includes strategies to prevent all students from exposures to risks. These strategies apply to all students, such as not leaving the classroom without a hall pass. Secondary Prevention is focused on about seven to nine percent of students, those whom the Primary interventions are not effective for. Finally, Tertiary Prevention strategies are targeted for individual students who may have a chronic condition such as a mental health disorder that greatly affects their daily functioning. These constitute about one to three percent of the student population.

Slide 5-PBIS and DRO

Differential Reinforcement of Other Behavior is an intervention that serves to replace maladaptive behaviors with acceptable behaviors. It is an intervention that may target a classroom of particularly disruptive students, or one or two children. Therefore, it may fit into the Secondary or the Tertiary Prevention model of PBIS.

Slide 6-DRO Definition

Differential Reinforcement of Other Behavior, referred to as DRO, is a type of intervention that aims to decrease problem behaviors. It involves delivering a reinforcer when there is an absence of a specific, target behavior during a period of time. The target behavior is any problem behavior that is disruptive to the student, the class, or both. This may include talking without raising a hand and being called on, hitting another child with the intent to harm, or getting out of his or her seat when he or she is expected to be sitting. A reinforcer is an item that a student finds desirable, and serves to increase a behavior. In the case of DRO, a reinforcer will decrease the problem behavior because the student only receives it if he or she behaves as expected. DRO can be used with one or two students and it can be used for the entire class as well. It can also be used during a particularly disruptive time of the day such as a group activity or during a math class with a few disruptive pupils. The next slide includes a glossary of terms that may help clarify any questions.

Slide 7-Glossary of Important Terms

This glossary contains a list of words and ideas to support your understanding of DRO. Please take a few minutes to review these concepts, as they will help you during explanation of DRO as an intervention.

Baseline data is an important way to compare your intervention and what you were doing to modify behavior before the intervention. DRO is most often used with interval times, so that a child is reinforced if they have not enacted the specific behavior you are looking to decrease. A graph is an important visual way to show others your data and how behaviors have decreased. The horizontal axis of a graph for DRO serves as the session for both baseline and intervention data.

Slide 8-Glossary of Important Terms

An interval is a length of time that you will observe a student or class for the target behavior. If the behavior is not exhibited, you will reinforce the class or student. Momentary DRO is a type of DRO that some researchers have used. It involves reinforcing the student if they are not displaying the behavior at the end of the interval. In other words, in a five minute interval, that child may continue to talk aloud for the whole five minutes, and if they are quiet at the end of the interval, they will be reinforced. Researchers have not found it to be effective, however it is important to mention. We will be using a different type of DRO that is more effective. I will discuss this type in an upcoming slide.

Slide 9-Glossary of Important Terms

Reinforcement involves rewarding a student or class immediately following a behavior. This will serve to increase the behavior because the child will want to receive that reward again. A reinforcer is the actual item or consequence that is given to the student or class. Reinforcer sampling is a way to determine which reinforcers will be most effective to the student or class to increase the good behaviors.

Slide 10-Glossary of Important Terms

A session includes several intervals. In DRO, a target behavior is the maladaptive behavior you are trying to decrease. A token can be exchanged later for the reinforcer you have chosen. For instance, a student must earn four star stickers to earn a reinforcer. Those stars serve as a token.

Slide 11-Glossary of Important Terms

The vertical axis of a graph used for DRO will mark the number of disruptive behaviors in each interval, or it can mark the number of intervals that included disruptive behavior in each session. In whole-interval DRO, a type of DRO, the student or class is reinforced if the disruptive behaviors do not occur throughout the entire interval. In other words, during a give minute interval, if a student talks aloud without raising his or her hand even once, the child is not reinforced. In contrast to momentary DRO, wDRO is more effective and we will use it as our intervention.

Slide 12-Research Supporting DRO

There are several research studies that have found DRO to be effective. It can help to reduce less disruptive classroom behaviors.It is also effective with more disruptive behaviors such as physically harming another student or teacher. It also cannot be effective unless the right reinforcer is chosen. I will discuss later in the presentation how to choose the right reinforcer. DRO is also very effective with edible reinforcers, however, federal guidelines prohibit the use of edibles in classrooms. This poses a challenge, however students still have interest in other objects and rewards that can be just as persuasive.

DRO can also be used with an individual child. It was effective in reducing the emotional symptoms of a child with Separation Anxiety Disorder and Attention Deficit Disorder who exhibited problem behaviors when he was faced with separation from his mother. This intervention can also be used with a few students who are the only students exhibiting mildly disruptive behaviors in a classroom or particular setting.

Slide 13- Settings or Situations for Appropriate Use of DRO

The previous research studies used classrooms as the main setting of their research. However, one of the studies used DRO with one child in a therapist’s office and was successful. Also, the parents of the same child continued to use the techniques of DRO at home and found that it was still successful in reducing the child’s behaviors. DRO can be used in a whole class of students such as preschoolers or second graders. It can also be used for specific activities that may prove to have more disruptions by students, such as times of silent reading, group work, or an activity held right after or before recess. DRO may also be used in classes for older students that may prove to be disruption-prone classes, especially because they are difficult. These may include science or math classes, or classes that end the school day as the last class before dismissal. It also may be beneficial for children who get fussy or misbehave while waiting at doctor’s offices for appointments. Parents can do this with their child and reward them at the end of the waiting period if they do not misbehave.

Slide 14- A Case Study

Mrs. Smith is a teacher of a first grade classroom of eighteen students. Her students are well behaved at most activities during the day, however she is having difficulty during her Reading Rug Activity. This activity lasts about thirty minutes and involves reading one or two books aloud to the children. Most of the students exhibit several behaviors that are disruptive to the teacher and to the other students while she is reading. These include students who stand up during the period of reading when they are expected to be sitting. Students wander and must be brought back to the rug, disrupting the reading activity for the other children. They also talk during the reading, distracting other students and Mrs. Smith. If they did not hear part of the story or have a question, they call out instead of raising their hand and waiting for Mrs. Smith to answer their question. Their attention also wanders during reading by looking at other books or physically harming other children by hitting, poking, pinching, or otherwise disturbing their neighbors. Mrs. Smith, a teacher with over ten years of experience, has tried having the half hour activity at different times during the day, however this has not solved the problem. She has also tried holding reading time during snack time, however the children do not pay attention to the reading and can rarely answer questions about the story that was read. She is interested in an intervention to reduce these problem behaviors because reading is an important activity that some of the children thoroughly enjoy and pay attention to.

Slide 15- Recipe For Success: Ingredients For DRO

For DRO, you will need several items. First, you will need a way to accurately time the intervals. You may use a stopwatch, kitchen timer, your own watch with a second hand, or a wall clock with a second hand. The first two options may be the most beneficial because you will not have to keep track of the time yourself, you can focus on the behaviors. However, the stopwatch or timer should not be distracting to the individual or group of students you are observing.

You will also need some idea of reinforcing items that are desired by the student or class. We will discuss reinforcer sampling in the next slide.

The last two items are your tools for determining the number of behaviors that occur and who is performing them during each interval. You will need to keep track of each interval session. You can do this by making a list of the names of the students in the class if you are doing a classwide intervention, or just the names of the students you are observing if only one or two. For classwide interventions, you may find it helpful to list the students in order of most to least disruptive so you can reduce the time you spend searching for the student’s name.

Slide 16- A Sample Data Sheet For DRO

This sample data sheet may be helpful to you when designing your data recording sheet.

Slide 17- The Steps of DRO: Slide 1 of 3

If you have decided to try DRO, the first step is to choose a reinforcer that is effective for the student or class. It must be an item or consequence that the student or class will want to have. If the reinforcer is not important to the child or class, the intervention will not be effective. Reinforcer sampling can be used, where the student or class is given samples of the reinforcers to determine which may be the most effective. Edible items are no longer an option for schools due to new federal laws, but there are many other options. These may include alone time with the teacher, a tangible item such as stickers or a coloring book, or ten minutes of free time on a computer.

Once you have chosen your reinforcer, you are ready to plan your intervention! You will want to begin by setting an interval of time to observe the behavior. There are also two types of interval schedules you may use, whole-interval DRO and momentary DRO. Because studies have found that whole-interval DRO is more effective as an intervention, while mDRO may be more effective to maintain the decrease in behavior, thereforewe will focus on whole-interval DRO.

Many studies using DRO have used short intervals such as two minutes. You may want to increase this length so as not to disrupt classroom activities. Avoid making intervals too long at the start of the intervention, otherwise the goal may be too high for the child or children to reach. Take into consideration the frequency of the disruptive behaviors. If they are occurring very often, a shorter interval may be better to start with, whereas if the behaviors are occurring less frequently, a longer interval may work. You will want to gradually increase the length of the intervals when the behaviors start to decrease.

Now that you have your reinforcer and you have set your beginning interval time, you can begin to collect baseline data for one session. When the behaviors occur during the interval, you will need to record them. If you have a student teacher or teacher’s aide, they may be able to help you with data collection. If not, and you are involved in direct instruction, you may need to find a way to record the students who are exhibiting the behavior. You could create a list of the students in the class with the most disruptive students near the top of the list to avoid searching. Then, make check marks when they are disruptive during an interval. Continue to monitor the students’ behaviors as you normally would, such as verbal reprimands for misbehaving.

Slide 18- The Steps of DRO: Slide 2 of 3

Before starting the intervention phases, you will define the behaviors for your students. You will define both the expected behaviors and the disruptive behaviors. It is important to be specific. Telling the students to ‘sit still’ is vague. Instead, tell the students they must sit in their designated seat or spot on the floor with their backside on the floor at all times.

Next, you will explain to the students that they will earn the reinforcing item only if they do not exhibit the disruptive behaviors. You will then explain to the students that they will receive the reinforcer if they reach a certain goal. For example, eight stars if you are doing ten intervals per session. You will want to tally the times that each student did not display the behavior and if the student reaches a set number, he or she will receive a star by his or her name, or a poker chip, or some other token. These tokens can be exchanged for the reinforcer you have chosen later, or if the reinforcer is something relatively easy and inexpensive to award, such as stickers or coloring books, you might give it after a session.

Once baseline data is collected and the child or children are aware of the behavior and token system, you are ready to begin your intervention! Your intervals will be the same length as your baseline intervals to start. You will record the data in the same way that you did for your baseline data, with a slight change. You will not verbally reprimand or use other ways of stopping disruptive behavior.

Slide 19- The Steps of DRO: Slide 3 of 3

At the end of each session, you will give the children who did not exhibit the target behaviors the reinforcer that you have chosen. In other words, the children who have check marks or tallies by their name will be reinforced because they did not misbehave during the set number of intervals that you have decided on. Reinforcing at the end of each session rather than interval is an easier way for teachers to use DRO. It also reduces disruption during instruction.

The final aspect of this intervention is determining if it is working to decrease problem behaviors. Making a graph is a good visual way of looking at the data you have collected. You can do this by making a simple bar or line graph. Be sure to include the baseline data within the bar or line graph and label the data. Also, label the sessions in order. The graph should show a decrease over time.